Centre facing policy paralysis: Jayalalithaa

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Tuesday slammed the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government and said it is facing 'policy paralysis'.

The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) supremo said the government is struggling to deal with ´internal squabblings´ and hence is unable to look into issues connected to ´livelihood´.

She said the government is unable to deal with important issues like the Cauvery river water problem.

"I had written to the honourable Prime Minister (Manmohan Singh) on May 19 seeking to convene meeting of the Cauvery River Authority. The Centre has not taken any action," Jayalalithaa said in a statement on Tuesday.

"It looks like the Centre has no time to focus on people's issues as it is struggling with internal squabbles created by its alliance parties," she said.

"The government is suffering from policy paralysis resulting in not even being able to look at the livelihood issues like the Cauvery river water problem," she said.

Jayalalithaa, who said Karnataka is unjustly using the water of the Cauvery River for summer irrigation and not ensuring the flow of the river water, had earlier wrote letters to the PM to intervene on the dispute.

Jayalalithaa had asked Singh in a letter to call a meeting of the Cauvery River Authority on the issue.

She told him that Karnataka was utilizing the water for the purpose of summer irrigation and from the month of February to May by reducing the storage in the four crucial major reservoirs.

She said the reduction would affect badly the Kuruvai (short term) crop and delay the cultivation of Samba (long term) crop in Tamil Nadu.